Volume 1

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum.
Date:
1846-9
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    ordinary condition, yet not morbidly indurated. The mucous membrane is thick, and is in many places pushed out in small pits through the meshes of muscular fasciculi which project in thick round ridges on the inner surface of the bladder; but the surface of the mucous membrane is smooth and velvet-like, and its tissue, though more compact than is usual, is not indurated: it appears only to have acquired additional strength in correspondence with the other hypertrophied textures of the organ. Hunterian* The bladder in such cases [of obstruction to the passage of urine] having more to do than common, is almost in a constant state of irritation and action ; by which, according to a property in all muscles, it becomes stronger and stronger in its muscular coats; and I suspect that this disposition to become stronger from repeated action, is greater in the involuntary muscles than the voluntary; and the reason why it should be so is, I think, very evident: for in the involuntary muscles the power sliould be in all cases capable of overcoming the resistance, as the power is always performing some natural and necessary action ; for whenever a disease produces an uncommon resistance in the involuntary parts, if the power is not proportionally increased, the disease be- comes very formidable; whereas in the voluntary muscles there is not that necessity, because the will can stop whenever the muscles cannot follow; and if the will is so diseased as not to stop, the power in voluntary muscles should not increase in pro- portion. I have seen the muscular coats of the bladder near half an inch thick, and the fasciculi so strong as to form ridges on the inside of that cavityand I have also seen the fasciculi very thin, and even wanting in some parts of the bladder, so that a hernia of the internal coat had taken place between the fasciculi and formed pouches. Tliese pouches arise from the thin parts not being able to support the actions of the strong; as happens in ruptures at the navel or rings of the abdomen.—Hunter; On (he Venereal Disease: Works, vol. ii. p. 299- This appearance was long supposed to have arisen from a disease of this viscus; but upon examination I found that the muscular parts were sound and distinct, that they were only increased in bulk in proportion to the power they had to exert, and that it was not a consequence of inflammation, for in that case parts are blended into one indistinct mass. 2. A parietal bone with small adjacent portions of the frontal, temporal, and occipital bones, and of some Wormian bones between them. They all. * Part of the preparation is engraved in Sir E. Home's ' Practical Observations on the Treatment of the Diseases of the Prostate Gland ;' Vol. I. pi. iv. London, 1811. B 2